New Tunes and a Night Out: Join Me for My Next Gig!
Hey heathens! A lot has been happening to yours truly as of late and I thought it was high time to fill you in.
First thing’s first, let’s get together! I’ll be slinging some tunes at Spearfish’s favorite Pub, Spearfish Public House, on November 4th, 2023.
I’m looking forward to this gig for a few reasons. First, it is a sort of celebration of Josh Fritz’s, the Pub owner, birthday. This pretty much ensures that it will be a rowdy time and an evening you won’t want to miss. He’s got me working on a birthday request that I have just about done and ready to play for him that night.
Second, I’ve been a bit on fire lately with my own songwriting. In the past two weeks I have cranked out 6 songs, most of which I’ve been able to feel good about saying they are complete and ready to start testing out at gigs!
Songwriting has been a part of my life for about 15 years now, at least actively, but over the past few years I have been in a bit of a slump. I was still trying to write and keep the elbows greased, but nothing that was coming out felt right…or was any good in my opinion.
As some of you know already, I wasn’t a part of the Wild West Songwriters Festival this past year. This was the first time in 10 years that I wasn’t there coordinating the local songwriter side of it and getting to spend the weekend with some good friends. It bummed me out a lot. That being said, it also lit something in me. I had this moment where I found myself questioning if I was even still a songwriter. In this line of work, it’s easy to feel like a fraud, especially if you’re in a dry spell.
So, I set to work and lo and behold, the songs started coming. Song after song I began pulling lyrics and chord progressions together that I didn’t hate. In this process I realized a few things about myself.
First, I had been in my own head. Anyone who has ever tried to create any kind of art knows what this is like. I try and be as clear as I can be when I am talking to someone and I realized that this was spilling over into my songwriting. What this produced was lines and lines of lyrics that are frustratingly uninspired because there is no mystery to them. Questions like, “I wonder what he means?” or “Do you think this is about this or that?” were hard questions to have reading through my lyrics. I felt as if I had a message I wanted the song to convey and that it was my responsibility to convey that message crystal clear.
In songwriting, this is a death sentence to creativity. Poetry is not meant to be clear. It is meant to evoke feelings and emotions which are always fuzzy at best. I began re-working my lyrics and pulling in metaphors and lines that don’t seem to go together, but caused me to think of paths in my head on how they could go together. This made me realize that if I am doing this with my own lyrics, perhaps it will cause others to do the same, turning the song into a foundation of meaning that can take as many forms as there are listeners to it.
Second, I realized that chord progressions exist for a reason. One of my struggles with songwriting has always been to try and stay unique. With this in mind, I would try to avoid the chord progressions used in the covers that I play out at gigs, and in the artists that I like to listen to. It hit me, though, that every artist I like found inspiration from artists that they liked and that is way they have similar sounds, albeit slightly different.
They stand on the backs of giants and create their own path from it.
Realizing these two things opened up the door to me that had been shut for a long time. I began creating songs that I enjoy listening to myself and that blend my favorite artists style with my own unique twist.
As a treat, I’m gonna share an example for you on song lyrics that I have had sitting around a while. Here is the original song lyrics I was pulling from:
Feel like I’ve been moving on forever Round another bend and try to keep from Falling asleep I’ve been searching for a savior but they all seem to keep alluding me
Every breath I take for granted I guess that’s what you do when you don’t have a rhyme or a reason to keep going on and on and on
Another chapter I think that I lost count of all the miles I’ve put behind and in front of me there lies and endless highway running out to
Somewhere I know I’ve never been before Those best intentions that I never reach
It’s a long long way home
Fill the tank up and pay the man for gas In his eyes I see a familiar scene and I wonder if he sees in me the heartaches that I have tried to keep
Locked away so tight and buried so deep Things I never again intend to see
I remember streets that I’ve walked through Way back when with no where to go And nothing to help me find my way Floating like a feather in the wind
It’s a long long way home
I know others walked this way before But it seems their shoes I cannot fill I never measure up To all the weight they put upon a name
Something somewhere somehow someway I might find better words to say And get this off my mind
It’s a long long way home
Perhaps not bad, but I wasn’t happy with it. I don’t have a recording of what this sounded like, but I assure you it was not enjoyable. Not catchy, not something you’d hear and want to hear again. Hooks in songs have always been a tough part for me.
So, I went to work on this one and after a few hours, the lyrics transformed to the following:
Verse 1
I’ve been driving roads forever weathered wheel in my hand
still young enough to think I’ll find the promised land
I’ve been searching for salvation on the streets that I’ve walked through
But every saviors just a ghost in my rearview
Chorus
It’s a long long long way home
Every miles a stepping stone
Guess we’re all just flesh and bone
On this long way home
Verse 2
Many walked this road before me in shoes that I can’t fill
Scattered creeds along the way that brought me to a still
And what’s the use of sorrow? It’s a trip I’ve made alone
Every tear and fear has paved the road I’m on
Bridge
And all my best intentions turned me into a man
Who's only sorry for what I can’t outrun
Settling my debts in lessons that I’ve learned
Now here I am, with a map I didn’t earn
Outro
I pull into the station and look the man in the eye
In his gaze I feel the weight of my goodbyes
We trade a smile but in his eyes a reflection of my past
In those younger days I drove so fast
This new version conveys far better the feel I was going for, while keeping things less clear, (yet somehow more clear?). Language is fun like that. It just needed me to break down the barriers I had put up of making sure my lyrics couldn’t be misunderstood and trying not to sound anything like songs I listen to myself.
As a further treat, here is a demo recording of this tune with the new lyrics. Mind the pitchiness in my voice as I recorded it quick so I wouldn’t forget the tune.
Long Way Home
I hope to play this song, and a few other new ones, out on Nov. 4th so you all can here them! Bring a friend and I’ll see you all then!
Cheers!
